Forget Me Not!
('Taming of the Shew' and 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall')

In the play 'Taming of the Shrew', there are two characters Katherine and Pertuchio who got married, barely knowing each other, then end up knowing why they are together. In the beginning of their relationship, Katherine was not happy with her new husband, after some time, the relationship changed. In the movie, 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall', Sarah and Peter were in an exclusive relationship. Sarah then breaks up with Peter because he no longer met her expectations, in the end they wound up together again because they remember that they love each other. Both texts rely on the idea that woman's emotions are the reason why relationships change over time.


"Call you me daughter? Now I promise you
You have showed a tender fatherly regard,
To wish me wed to one half lunatic,
A madcap ruffian and a swearing Jack,
That thinks with oaths to face the matter out."

(Act 2, Scene 1, line 300-305)

In the play, 'Taming of the Shrew', Katherine is ranting on to her father about how she does not want to marry Petruchio. She is expressing her misunderstanding of how a father could marry off his own daughter to a crazy man. Katherine's father agreed that she was to marry this man the next Sunday. Petruchio was talking very calmly to Katherine, telling her that he is going to marry her and that he was meant to tame her. The start of Katherine and Petruchio's relationship was forceful. Katherine did not want to be with Petruchio at all, but during that time, women did not have a choice sometimes on who they married. Katherine showed no respect for Petruchio and displayed no affection. In modern day, women have more control on what happens in a relationship because if they don't want to be in a relationship anymore, women withhold the power to break up.


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In the movie 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' this picture was taken in the scene where Sarah had just broken up with her serious, long-term boyfriend, Peter. Sarah decided to end the relationship because she was not happy with the way Peter was acting, therefore, he became homebound and he no longer lived up to her expectations of a boyfriend. In the start of the relationship, Sarah was really happy with Peter, her emotions proved it. During the movie, they showed snap shots of happy times that the couple had together before they broke up. After the breakup, Peter started to spend more time at home and didn't work as much anymore, Sarah became unhappy and that is the reason the relationship changed, because Sarah's emotions changed about Peter. It is opposite to Katherine's situation with Petruchio because she did not have the power to leave him. Instead, Katherine adapted to her relationship and came to the conclusion that she should only obey her husband.

"Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper."

(Act 5, Scene 2, line 161)

In this scene, Katherine is responding to Petruchio's command to come to him. The husbands made a bet to see which wife was most obedient and one by one, the husbands had there servant go and tell their wives that their husband had summoned them, Katherine was the only wife that came out for Petruchio. She appeared, dragging the other wives along and gave a long speech how a women should obey their husbands. When Katherine exclaims how husbands are in control, they are the keeper and everything a women needs to live, she had a complete change of heart. Over the course of their relationship, Petruchio tamed Katherine to become the wife he wanted her to be. This accomplishment meant that Katherine's emotions had to transition into something completely different, they had to change so she came to the realization that Petruchio was her master. Katherine's adjustment to her emotions was drastic, this is not always the case for all situations. When Sarah changed how she felt about Peter, she went about it in a much different way.

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During this scene of the movie, Sarah is begging Peter to take her back. She explains how she made a terrible mistake leaving him and she really wants Peter to be with her again. Sarah realized that the grass was not greener on the other side with her other boyfriend and saw that Peter was what she really wanted. In this situation, Sarah ruled the relationship because her emotions were in control. Peter throughout the relationship catered to Sarah because he let her emotions control how he acted and what he did. Sarah's relationship changed overtime because her emotions changed.


In modern texts, women have the power to break up, however, Katherine did not have the power to break up. She had realized that she had wanted Petruchio on her own. In contrast, Sarah came to that realization that she needed Peter after she broke up with him. Although the situations were different because Katherine did not have the choice to break up, her emotions still changed the state of the relationship over time. She becomes more "tamed" and obedient to her husband. Sarah's emotion changed over time, and according to these changes, the relationship altered with them. This portrays that women's emotions change a relationship overtime.